Women bear brunt of Islamophobia

Rasa - It is the little things that Sara misses the most: driving around with the windows down, taking her kids to the park, ducking to shops for groceries.

News ID: 1360

Date: 10 October 2014 - 21:25

RNA - The Muslim mother-of-two from Revesby is too scared to leave the house after a spate of anti-Muslim incidents in Sydney.

"I've seen so many friends report on their Facebook about being abused, I have a friend who was spat on at Central station last week. When the Bankstown shopping centre was evacuated the other day for a smoke alarm I had friends who said the crowds started to abuse them and shout insults" she said.

"I haven't been going out with my kids in public because I'm afraid. I witnessed someone else be verbally abused of her niqab so it's made me very wary."

Sara won't walk down the street with her six-months and three-year-old children or take them to the park to play.

If she needs something from the shops, her husband will go.

If she has to leave the house with her children, she keeps the car windows up and the radio on loud so they can't hear any abuse that may be hurled at them.

"It's those mundane, little things that I have never had to do before now that I miss the most," she said.

"Getting physically hurt would be awful but even my children hearing something hateful could scar them. How do I respond to 'Mummy, why did that person say something rude?' I don't want my children being traumatised because of the comments from one bigot."

Luckily, the 29-year-old public health researcher is on maternity leave.

"I work in the city and the thought of having to catch public transport and be around such a large number of people would make me feel really uneasy," she said.

Sara has noticed a definite shift in anti-Muslim attitudes in the past few months as the terror alert level was raised to high, new counter-terrorism laws were pushed through Parliament, anti-terror raids were carried out in Sydney and politicians debated whether or not to ban the burqa.

She had never second-guessed her movements before then.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, since the anti-terror raids, attacks on Muslims have been "relentless" and "disgusting" with incidents more widespread than reported, police say.

Campsie crime manager,  detective inspector Paul Albury, said social media  has been a breeding ground for hatred. And women seem to bear the brunt of the abuse.

"It's targeting women, which is just mind-blowing," he said.

Campsie police charged a 54-year-old man on Saturday for allegedly leaving offensive voicemail messages on the phones of two Muslim organisations in the area.

It follows a string of Islamophobic incidents including charging a man with the verbal abuse of two Muslim women in a car in Newcastle and charging a man who walked into a Minto Islamic college with a knife.

"They have to be subjected to this rubbish each and every day and it's disgusting," Inspector Albury said.

"It almost feels like some expect to be abused."

Sara was happy to be photographed but used an alias to speak to Fairfax Media because she feared a backlash for speaking out against Islamophobia.

"But I think people need to be held accountable for these actions," she said. "When you say something online, whether it's a death threat or something incredibly hateful or offensive, police need to actually do something about it."

Community leaders told Fairfax Media last month that mounting incidents of anti-Muslim violence in Sydney will ignite a Cronulla-style riot if authorities don't step in to quell tensions.

Activists have been keeping logs of dozens of Islamophobic incidents such as threats to burn head coverings, having hijabs ripped from women's heads and being pushed and spat on.

Ahmed Kilani, editor of the Muslim Village website, said many Muslims were adopting a vigilante-style response.

Inspector Albury said he often heard second-hand accounts of harassment and intimidation through advocacy groups.

Unfortunately, he said, police can't act without community support, which includes reporting incidents.

"It's not rhetoric, it's real. We want to do something about this," he said.

He said there was a fear that victims of bias crimes could take the law into their own hands.

"It's not helping community harmony," he said. "We are hoping it will not lead to violence."

R111/108/C/